Pixel Pets Adapt to America

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Pixel Pets Adapt to America

In San Francisco, people began queuing up early in the morning to buy Tamagotchi, the hand-held virtual pet that caused a craze in Japan and hit American shelves Thursday. But what most consumers don't know is that the toy sold in the US has some dramatic differences from the Japanese version.

In Japan, Bandai has sold 3 to 4 million Tamagotchi, a small egg on a screen which hatches into a tiny pixel chick; the pet peeps when happy and dies if neglected. While the majority of sales have gone to adult and teenage women, and are even popular among businessmen, Bandai and competitor Tiger Electronics, which launched a similar virtual pet Thursday, are targeting the 8- to 16-year-old market in the US.

The American version of the Tamagotchi eggs will eat different food, and have different behavior patterns and "characters," says Bandai spokesperson Aki Nakanishi, although Bandai declines to explain exactly what those differences are. One significant change, however, will be the way the pet dies: in Japan, a gravestone and ghosts appear - in America, the chick flies away with a smiling angel.

"American [beta-testers] didn't understand the ghost," explains a Bandai spokesperson. "Here it's not such a good idea to joke about the concept of death."

Tiger Electronics is also marketing its Giga Pets in a uniquely American way: expanding the line into six collectable "pets," including an alien and a dinosaur that will tie-in with the Jurassic Park movie. Tiger is stressing that its pets are more active than the Tamagotchi eggs, and can be taught tricks. The Giga Pets will sell for half the US$18 price tag of the Bandai product.

The keychain toys won't be the first virtual pets in the American market: Several companies are already producing pets that live on your computer, all with more complex graphics and artificial intelligence patterns. PF.Magic has sold roughly 350,000 copies of its Petz software, and Fujitsu, which has sold "tens of thousands" of copies of its Fin Fin software pet in Japan, released the toy in the United States last month.

Like Bandai, Fujitsu tailored its perky dolphin pet for Americans, making it more active and quicker to respond to the commands of its "owners," in response to the belief that Americans are impatient and want more immediate gratification.

"In Japan there's definitely a different relationship with nature and technology, and defining what is 'cute,'" explains Michael Pentecorvo, director of technology at Fujitsu Interactive. "Grown men are buying the Fin Fin title there. We're marketing it to teens and people over 30. Over here it's for kids 4 years and up."

For Bandai, the market in the PC-friendly US is more uncertain than in Japan, where apartments are small, pets are rare, and kitsch runs rampant. Neither Bandai nor Tiger are willing to make projections, and Bandai spokespeople say they are unsure of what will happen, although the eggs' reception by the stores have been promising so far.